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'The University of North Carolina in the Civil War " 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED AT THE 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 



OPENING OF THE INSTITUTION, 



JUNE 5TH, 1805. 



STEPHEN BEAUREGARD WEEKS, Ph. D, 



RErRINTED FROM THE SOUTHERN HISTORICAL SOCIETY PaI'ERS, 

Volume XXIY. 



RICHMOND: 

\V^L ELI, IS JONES, STEAM BOOK AND JOB PRINTPZH. 
1896. 



'The University of North Carolina in the Civil War." 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED AT THE 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 



OPENING OF THE INSTITUTION, 



JUNE 5th, 1895. 



STEPHEN BEAUREGARD WEEKS, Ph. IX 

u 



Reprinted from the Southern Historical Society Papers, 
Volume XXIV. 



RICHMOND: 

\VM. ELLIS JONES, STEAM BOOK AND JOB PRINTER. 
1896. 



/ 3/s3;c? 



'; 



7 






"The University of North Carolina in the Civil War." 



AN ADDRESS 

Delivered at the Centennial Celebration of the Opening of the Institu= 
tion, June 5th, 1895. 



By Stephen Beauregard Weeks, Ph. D. 



I. General Introduction. 

" First at Bethel; last at Appomattox." Such is the laconic in- 
scription on the new monument to the Confederate dead which was 
recently unveiled in Raleigh. There is an especial appropriateness 
in the erection of this monument by the people of North Carolina 
in their organic capacity, for these men died at the command of their 
State, and it was exceedingly proper that she should thus honor 
them. 

The heroic in history but seldom occurs. It is not often that the 
life of nations rises above the monotonous level which characterizes 
the daily routine of duty. When such periods do occur they are 
usually as a part of some great national uprising- like the leve en 
masse in France under the first Napoleon, or the Landsturm in Ger- 
many in 18 13. Of the American States, none can show a fairer 
record in this respect than North Carolina. There is little in the 
Colonial or State history of North Carolina that is discreditable. 
The key-note to the whole of her Colonial history is unending op- 
position to unjust and illegal government, by whom or whenever 
exercised. Before the colony was well in its teens it had expelled 
one of its governors from office, and a better man, one who was 
more in sympathy with the people, had taken his place; and before 
the colony was thirty, another governor, although one of the Lords 
Proprietors had been impeached, deprived of his office, and expelled 
the province. It was this fearlessness in what they conceived to be 
their rights that carried her people through the troublous period of 
the " Cary Rebellion," so called; enabled them to meet with a firm 



2 Southern Historical Society Papers. 

hand the brow-beating and the \'illainies, as well as the flattery, of 
proprietary and royal governors and put them among the leaders in 
the movement that culminated in the Revolution. 

Then came a time of peace and calm when the people pursued 
the even tenor of their way, and sought in field and forum to find 
solution for the problems amid which their lot was cast. This period 
lasted for about two generations, and during it the University of 
North Carolina had been founded and was seeking a greater expan- 
sion. During the period from the end of the Revolution to the 
Civil War there are no mountain peaks in her history; the level of 
uniformity is hardly broken by a single event of importance, and 
there is little in it to attract the attention of the student of the phil- 
osophy of history. But there is a period in the history of North 
Carolina which stands pre-eminent. There is a time which deserves 
to be characterized as the heroic peroid of the State. This is the 
period of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Let all other parts 
of our history be forgotten, this period of itself, though it be less 
than half a generation in all, will place North Carolina among the 
heroic in history. 

During those terrible years we see a renaissance of the ideas which 
characterized pre-eminently the men of the Colonial period. The 
men of '6i showed that the spirit of Colonial North Carolina was 
still abroad in the land, and their watchword became again resist- 
ance to what they believed to be unjust government, and with this 
as a basis they conducted a struggle for success that has few parallels 
in history. They sought to carry out again the program of their 
colonial ancestors, even to the impeachment and deposition of their 
governor. 

In the movement which led up to the war North Carolina took the 
part of a conservative, ambitious for peace. She sought to escape 
the necessity of war by all the means in her power; but, when the 
die was cast and war was no longer avoidable, she entered into the 
struggle with characteristic energy, and prosecuted it to the end, 
and when the end came, no State accepted the crushing defeat with 
more steadfast loyalty than North Carolina, or sought with more 
energy to build up the waste places. Then came what was worse 
than defeat, " impartial suffrage," which meant disfranchisement of 
whites and enfranchisement of blacks, then the terrors of recon- 
struction and negro rule broke over us like^the roar of some terrible 
simoon, bearing in its path further humiliation, accompanied by a 
corrupt government, increased taxes, and a depreciation of values. 



UniversUii of North Carolina in the Ciril War. 3 

Such was the struggle through which the best men of North Caro- 
Hna were called to pass in those fateful years between i860 and 1875. 
These were the years on which the fate of the future in a large 
measure depended. Well did the brave men of that generation come 
to the succor of the foundering ship of State, and nobly did they 
rescue her from the rule of her motley crew. The best men of 
North Carolina were engaged in this work, and among them, most 
frequently as leaders, were many alumni of the University of North 
Carolina. 

II. University Men in Public Life. 

Before beginning to trace the career of the alumni of the Univer- 
sity of North Carolina in the Civil War, it will be of interest for us 
to review briefly the influence oi that institution on the nation as a 
whole. Before 1861 the University of North Carolina had furnished 
one President of the United States, James K. Polk; one Vice Presi- 
dent, William R. King; two Presidents of the United States Senate, 
Willie P. Mangum and William R. King; seven Cabinet officers, 
John H. Eaton, (War), John Branch (Navy), John Y. Mason (Navy 
and Attorney General), William A. Graham (Navy), James C. Dob- 
bin (Navy), Jacob Thompson (Interior), and Aaron V. Brown (P. 
M. G. ) She had had two foreign ministers of the first rank, Wil- 
liam R. King and John Y. Mason; (both to France), and three of 
the second rank, Daniel M. Barringer, John H. Eaton and Romulus M. 
Saunders, (all to Spain). She had furnished three Governors to Flor- 
ida, John Branch, (Ter. ), John H. Eaton, (Ter. ), and W. D. Mose- 
ley; two to Tennessee, A. O. P.* Nicholson and James K. Polk; and 
one to New Mexico, Abram Rencher. Of United States Senators, 
she had had Branch, Brown, Graham, Haywood and Mangum of 
North Carolina; A. O. P. Nicholson of Tennessee; Thomas H. Ben- 
ton of Missouri, and William R. King of Alabama. Benton served 
for thirty years in succession; King served twenty-nine years in all, 
and these two records are still among the first in point of service. 
The University had furnished forty-one members of the House of 
Representatives, and included in the number James K. Polk as 
speaker. She had given two justices to the Supreme Court of North 
Carolina; two Chancellors to Tennessee; a Chief Justice to Florida; 
a Chief Justice to Alabama, and five bishops to the Protestant Epis- 
copal church (Davis, Green, C. S. Hawks, Otey, Polk); besides a 
number of college presidents, professors in colleges and leaders in 
other walks of life. 



4 Southern Hisiorical Sodeftj Papers. 

III. The Position of the University in North Carolina 

IN 1861. 

When we come to study the influence of this University on North 
Carohna itseh", it will be seen that that influence was all powerful. 
The first alumnus to attain the Governor's chair was William Miller 
in 18 1 4. Between this date and the deposition of Governor Vance 
in 1866, no less than fourteen out of twenty governors were Univer- 
sity men — Miller, Branch, Burton, Owen, Swain, Spaig-ht, Morehead, 
Graham, Manly, Winslovv, Bragg, Ellis, Clark, and Vance. They 
filled the chair thirty-eight years out of the fifty-two. The influence 
of the University was not less paramount in North Carolina at the 
outbreak of the war in 1861 than it had been in former years. The 
governor in 1861, John W. Ellis, and his opponent on the Whig 
ticket in i860, John Pool, were both alumni. The two Senators in 
Congress in 1861, Thomas Bragg and Thomas L. Clingman; four of 
the Representatives in Congress, L. O'B. Branch, Thomas Ruffin, 
Z. B. Vance, and Warren Winslow, were University men. The 
speakership of the State Senate, under Warren Winslow, W. W. 
Avery, Henry T. Clark, Giles Mebane, M. E. Manly, and Tod R. 
Caldwell, was constantly under the direction of University men 
between 1854 and 1870. With the exception of a period of fifteen 
years, this office was continuously in the hands of University men 
between 18 15 and 1870. Thomas Settle was Speaker of the House 
of Commons in 1858, 1859, and 1863; R. B. Gilliam in 1862; R. S. 
Donnell in 1864; and with the exception of twenty years they had 
filled the office continuously since 18 12. The members of the 
Supreme Court of the State, M. E. Manly, W. H. Batde, and R. 
M. Pearson, were all alumni. Of the judges of the Superior Court 
in 1861, the University was represented by John L. Bailey, Romulus 
M. Saunders, James W. Osborne, George Howard, Jr., and Thomas 
Ruffin, Jr. In the same way four of the solicitors were University 
men, Elias C. Hines, Thomas Settle, Jr., Robert Strange, and David 
Coleman, and William A. Jenkins, the Attorney-General (1856-62), 
made a fifth. All of his predecessors in the office of Attorney-Gen- 
eral since 1810 had been University men, except those filling the 
position for a period of fourteen years. Daniel W. Courts, State 
Treasurer (1852-63), was another alumnus, and so had been his 
predecessors since 1837, except for two years. Three of the success- 
ful Breckinridge electors in i860, John W. Moore, A. M. Scales, 



University/ of North Carolina in the Cicil War. 5 

and William B. Rodman, were alumni. This list of the public offi- 
cials will show conclusively that the large majority of the more 
important positions in the State were filled by the alumni of the 
University. They were the men who controlled the destinies of the 
State in 1861. 

IV. Union Sentiment in North Carolina in 1861. 

North Carolina was the last to enter the Confederacy, and her 
slowness was due, beyond question, to the paramount influence ex- 
ercised by the conservative views of the alumni of the Uni\'ersity. 
Willie P. Mang'um, who had been the personal friend of the aboli- 
tion Senator, William H. Seward, when the latter first entered the 
United States Senate, had said in the Senate long before, when the 
nullification of South Carolina was the topic of the day: " If I could 
coin my heart into gold, and it were lawful in the sight of Heaven, I 
would pray God to give me firmness to do it, to save the Union from 
the fearful, the dreadful shock which I verily believe impends." His 
feelings were not changed by time, and in i860 he said to his nephew 
who had been taught in the school of Calhoun and Yancey, and now 
talked loudly of secession, that if he were an emperor the nephew 
should be hanged for treason. The Union sentiments of Governor 
Graham, Governor Morehead, of Governor Vance, and General 
Barringer, were just as pronounced as were those of Judge Mangum. 
All of the old line Whigs opposed the war, while some of the Demo- 
crats, like Bedford Brown, denied the right to secede. 

V. Action of North Carolina Assembly, i86o-'6i. 

With such sentiments as these from her leading men it is hardly a 
matter of surprise that North Carolina moved slowly in the consider- 
ation of this great question. On the other hand. Judge S. J. Per- 
son, the leader of the secession forces in North Carolina, was also a 
University man, and on December loth, i860, as Chairman of the 
Committee on Federal Relations, made a report to the General As- 
sembly, in which it was recommended that a convention be elected 
on February 7th, 1861, to meet on the i8th, to consider the grave 
situation. A minority report was signed by three members of the 
committee, Giles Mebane, Col. David Outlaw, and Nathan Newby, 
all University men, in which they opposed the calling of a conven- 
tion, on the ground that it was " premature and unnecessary." The 
conservatives carried their point and no convention was called. 



6 Souther)) Historical Soriett/ Papers. 

During the month of January, 1861, various delegations were re- 
ceived from the more southern States which had already seceded. 
It was the duty of these commissioners to bring North Carolina 
over, if possible, to the side of the Confederacy. The University 
found three of her alumni among these commissioners: Isham W. 
Garrott, from Alabama; Jacob Thompson, from Mississippi, and 
Samuel Hall, from Georgia. The Assembly of North Carolina had 
also received an invitation from the State of Alabama to send a dele- 
gation to meet similar delegations from other States at Montgomery 
in February, 1861. The State sent a committee "for the purpose 
of effecting an honorable and amicable adjustment of all the diffi- 
culties which distract the country, upon the basis of the Crittenden 
resolutions," and the parties chosen were all University men: Presi- 
dent D. L. Swain, General M. W. Ransom, and Colonel John L. 
Bridgers. In the same way three of the five commissioners sent by 
North Carolina to attend the Peace Congress in Washington in 1861 
were University men. They were J. M. Morehead, George Davis, 
and D. M. Barringer. 

Finally, on January 30th, 1861, through the strenuous efforts of 
Judge S. J. Person, W. W. Avery, and Victor C. Barringer, all 
again University men, the Assembly of North Carolina passed an 
act providing for the calling of a convention. The election was on 
the 28th of February. In Holden's paper, T/ic Standafd, of 
the 20th of March, the official figures are given as 467 against a 
convention.'^ The same paper estimates that out of 93,000 votes 
cast at this election, 60,000 were in favor of the Union, and that 
20,000 sympathizers with the same side staid from the polls. Of the 
delegates elected about eighty-three were for the Union, and only 
about thirty-seven for secession. Some of the counties, like Cas- 
well, voted against the convention, but chose Union delegates; 
others, like Wake, voted for convention and chose Union delegates. 
In Raleigh the vote was nearly nine to one in favor of the Union. 
No convention was therefore called and secession was 'defeated for 
the second time in North Carolina. 

But all the efforts towards a peaceful solution of the problem were 
failures; Sumpter was fired on and President Lincoln issued his call 
for 75,000 troops. The share of North Carolina was two regiments. 



*Addtothis 194 inajorily from Davie, which arrived too late to be put 
into the official returns, and we find a majorit}- of 661 against a convention. 



Unicersitji of North Carolina in the Ciril War. 7 

The reply of Governor Ellis to this call for troops, addressed to Hon. 
Simon Cameron, Secretary of War, on the 15th of April, marked 
him as a man of prompt decision and great force of character. It 
was to be for four long years the watch word of a great State and 
was but the chrystalized sentiment of the people of that day: " Your 
dispatch is received, and if genuine, which its extraordinary charac- 
ter leads me to doubt, I have to say in reply that I regard the levy 
of troops made by the administration for the purpose of subjugating 
the States of the South as in violation of the Constitution, and a 
gross usurpation of power. I can be no party to this wicked viola- 
tion of the laws of the country, and to this war upon the liberties of 
a free people. You can get no troops from North Carolina." 

VI. The North Carolina Secession Convention. 

The next and the inevitable step was the Convention of 186 1. It 
was provided for by act of May i; the election was held May 13; on 
the 20th the Convention met; on the same day. North Carolina, after 
much deliberation, after a long consideration which might have been 
termed cowardice by more hotheaded neighbors, passed the ordi- 
nance of secession. She had been the last of the Southern States to 
enter the Federal union; she was the last to sever her connection 
with it. In this convention, as elsewhere. Universitv of North Car- 
olina men were all powerful. The following were her contribution to 
the Convention of 1861: 

Alexander county, A. C. Stewart; Beaufort, R. S. Donnell; Bla- 
den, Thomas D. McDowell; Brunswick, Thomas D. Meares; Cald- 
well, Edmund W. Jones (?); Camden, Dennis D. Ferebee; Carteret, 
Charles R. Thomas; Caswell, Bedford Brown; Chatham, J. H. Hea- 
den, John Manning, L. J. Merritt; Cumberland, Warren Winslow, 
Malcolm J. McDuffie (?); Davidson, B. A. Kittrell; Duplin, Joseph 
T. Rhodes; Edgecombe, William S. Battle, George Howard, Jr.; 
Forsyth, Rufus L. Patterson; Gaston, Sidney X. Johnston; Guilford, 
John A. Gilmer, R. P. Dick; Halifax, Richard H. Smith; Hender- 
son, William M. Shipp; Iredell, Anderson Mitchell; Mecklenburg, 
William Johnston, James W. Osborne; New Hanover, R. H. Cowan. 
Robert Strange; Northampton, D. A. Barnes; Orange, William A. 
Graham; Perquimans, Joseph S. Cannon (?); Person, John W. Cun- 
ningham; Pitt, Bryan Grimes; Randolph, William J. Long, Alfred 



8 Southern Historical Soc-iety Papers. 

G. Foster; Richmond, Walter F. Leak; Rowan. Burton Craige, 
Hamilton C. Jones, Richard A. Caldwell; Sampson, Thomas Bun- 
ting (?); Stokes, John Hill; Wake, Kemp P. Battle; Washington, 
William S. Pettigrew; Wayne, George V. Strong. 

The Convention had 120 members. Resignations, deaths, and 
new elections increased this number to about 139. About one-third 
of these had been students in this University. The secretaryship of 
the convention was given to one of her sons, Colonel Walter L. Steele, 
the assistant secretaryship to another, Leonidas C. Edwards, and she 
had more than her share of the ability of the convention. After we 
except the names of Judge Badger, Judge Rufifin, Judge Biggs. W. 
W. Holden, Kenneth Rayner, Governor Reid, E. J. Warren, and a 
few others, it will be seen that most of the leaders were University 
men. 

When the convention came, on the i8th of June, to choose Sena- 
tors and Representatives from North Carolina to the Provisional 
Congress of the Confederate States, which met in Richmond, in July 
1861, the dominating influence of the University was still more power- 
fully felt. Four men were nominated for the senatorships: George 
Davis, W. W. Avery, Bedford Brown and Henry W. Miller. They 
were all University men. Seven others received votes without a for- 
mal nomination; five of these, W. A. Graham, Thomas Bragg, Wil- 
liam Eaton, Jr., John M. Morehead, and George Howard, Jr., were 
University men. Davis and Avery were chosen. For the eight seats 
in the Confederate House of Representatives, 17 candidates were 
presented. Eight candidates were University men and four of these 
were elected: Burton Craige, Thomas D. McDowell, John M. More- 
head and Thomas Ruffin, Jr. As Judge Waller R. Staples, of Vir- 
ginia, was also a member, the University of North Carolina had seven 
alumni as delegates to this session of the Provisional Congress. 
When we come to the two Congresses of the Confederate States, we 
find that the University had two representatives in the Senate, George 
Davis (i), and William A. Graham (2), while Thomas S. Ashe was 
chosen for the third which never met. In the House she had David 
W. Lewis, of Georigia (i); Thomas S. Ashe (i), R. R. Bridgers (i), 
Thomas C. Fuller (2), John A. Gilmer (2), Thomas D. McDowell 
(i), and Josiah Turner (2), of North Carolina; and Waller R. Staples, 
of Virginia. 



Unkersitij of North Oirolina in the Ciril W<u\ 9 

VII. Alumni in Confederate Executive Service. 

Some of her alumni were in the executive service. John Manning- 
was a receiver of the Confederate States. Jacob Thompson was 
confidential agent to Canada. His object was to open communica- 
tions with secret organizations of anti-war men in Ohio, Indiana and 
Illinois, to arrange for their organization and arming so that they, 
when strong enough, might demand a cessation of hostilities on the 
part of the Federal government. Thompson was of much service also 
in collecting and forwarding supplies, conducting communications 
with the outside world, &c. He acquired no little notoriety in con- 
nection with the attempted release of Confederate prisioners from 
Rock Island, Camp Chase and Chicago; suffered the unjust accusa- 
tion of sending infected clothing into the union lines from Canada, 
and came perilously near having the distinction conferred upon him 
of being made the scape goat to bear the infamy of the assassination 
of Lincoln. 

Two sons of the University served as the head of the Confederate 
Department of Justice. Thomas Bragg was the second and George 
Davis the fourth Attorney General. 

Other alumni ser\'ed their individual States in various civil ways. 
The three commissioners of the North Carolina Board of Claims 
elected in 1861 were all University men, B. F. Moore, S. F. Phillips, 
and P. H. Winston. When an agent was appointed later in the war 
to audit the financial dealings of the State with the Confederacy, P. 
H. Winston, the third member of the Board of Claims, was chosen 
for that responsible position. George V. Strong became Confed- 
erate District Attorney for North Carolina in 1862; Robert B. Gilliam 
and William M. Shipp became judges of the superior court in North 
Carolina in 1862 and 1863 respectively. Thomas C. Manning was 
chairman of the commission appointed by the governor of Louisiana 
to investigate the outrages committed by Federal troops under Gen. 
Banks during the invasion of Western Louisiana in 1S63 and 1864. 
Manning and H. M. Polk were members of the Louisiana secession 
convention of 1861, and John T. Wheat was its secretary. John 
Bragg was a member of the Alabama, and A. H. Carrigan of the 
Arkansas convention and Arthur F. Hopkins was sent by the gov- 
ernor of Alabama as special agent to Virginia. Were it possible for 
us to obtain the complete history of each one of our students in the 



10 Southern Historical Sorieti/ Papers. 

more 3outhern States, it would no doubt be found to be a fact that 
our alumni, where ever they were, held more than their proportion- 
ate share of the places of trust and honor and of the posts of danger. 

VIII. University Men in Military Service. 

The above summary has given us a survey of the civil service ren- 
dered during the war by the alumni of the University of North 
Carolina. We have noted how completely they dominated the con- 
trol of the State in 1861. We have seen that the representatives of 
the University of North Carolina in the Confederate Congress was 
fair, but not extraordinarily large. We now come to the officers in 
the field. 

The highest military rank held by a University man was that of 
Lieutenant-General. This was attained by Leonidas Polk under a 
commission dated Oct. 10, 1862. Gen. Polk was outranked in 
length of service only by Longstreet and Kirby-Smith. He had 
been made Major-General on June 25, 1861; he was the second per- 
son to attain this rank, and, of the 99 Major Generals in the service, 
was, with one exception, the only man to attain this position without 
passing through the preliminary grade of Brigadier. 

The University had one other son to attain the rank of Major 
General, Bryan Grimes, commissioned Feb. 23, 1865. 

Of Brigadier Generals she had thirteen. 

George Burgwyn Anderson, commissioned, June 9, 1862. 

Rulus Barringer, commissioned June i, 1864. 

Lawrence O' Bryan Branch, commissioned, Nov. 16, i86r. 

Thomas Lanier Clingman, commissioned May 17, 1862. 

Isham W. Garrott, commissioned Mav 28, 1863. 

Richard Caswell Gatlin, commissioned July 8, 1861. 

Bryan Grimes, commissioned May 19, 1864. 

Robert Daniel Johnston, commissioned Sept. i, 1863. 

William Gaston Lewis, commissioned May 31, 1864. 

James Johnston Pettigrew, commissioned Feb. 26, 1862. 

Chas. W, Phifer, commissioned spring of 1862. 

Matt Whitaker Ransom commissioned June 13, 1863. 

Alfred Moore Scales, commissioned June 13, 1863. 

Among the staff appointments we find that the third Adjutant 
and Inspector General, R. C. Gatlin, was a son of this University. 
He was commissioned August 26, 1863, and in July 1862, had been 



Uiiicersity of North Carolin<i hi the Cir'd ^Yar. 11 

made a Major-General of N. C. S. T. The first assistant Adjutant 
General, was J. F. Hoke ( 1 86 1); the first Quartermaster General was 
L. O'B. Branch; the first Commissary General was Col. William 
Johnston. Matt. W. Ransom was made a Major-General in 1865 and 
Col. John D. Barry was commissioned a Brigadier-General, with tem- 
porary rank, on the third of August, 1864. 

In the medical department we find Dr. Peter E. Hines as the Med- 
ical Director of North Carolina troops, Dr. E. Burke Haywood as 
surgeon of the General Hospital at Raleigh, and Joseph H. Baker 
was the first assistant Surgeon of North Carolina troops, commis- 
sioned in 1 86 1. Other alumni rendered similar services to other 
states; Ashley W. Spaight was Brigadier-General in the service of 
Texas; Thomas C. Manning was Adjutant-General of Louisana in 
1863, with the rank of Brigadier; Jacob Thompson was an Inspec- 
tor-General. 

Should full information ever be obtained it will no doubt appear 
that there were other cases where alumni of this University served 
their States in high military capacity, although not forming a part of 
the regular army of the Confederate States. 

When we come to the list of colonels and lieutenant-colonels their 
number is very large. These were furnished to the Confederacy by 
North Carolina: seventy-six regiments (besides thirteen battalions 
and a few other troops, making, perhaps, in all eighty full regi- 
ments). Out of the seventy-six regular regiments we find that 
forty-eight had at one time or another a son of this University in 
the first or second place of command. The list includes forty-five 
colonels and twenty-nine lieutenant-colonels. We are to remember 
also that all of the alumni of the institution did not serve with the 
North Carolina troops, and we must keep their record also in view. 
From the best sources obtainable, the catalogues of the Philan- 
thropic and Dialectic Societies, it seems that not less than sixty- 
three Alumni attained the rank of colonel in the various regiments 
furnished by the different States to the Confederacy, and that not 
less than thirty became lieutenant-colonels. 

IX. The Alumni in Battle. 

Having taken this general survey of the power and influence 
Wielded by University men in public affairs in i860-' 61, and of the 
higher positions in the army of the Confederate States filled by them. 



12 Soxdicrn Historical Society Papers. 

it now becomes our duty to review the humbler, but no less im- 
portant positions in the service which were filled by her alumni; to 
trace the rising spirit of enthusiasm among her students in 1861; 
to follow their fortunes in the dark and evil days, and then to tell 
the story of her experience during the closing days of the struggle. 

To come then, first of all, to the "spirit of '61." When the war 
began the boys of the University rushed away to the struggle like 
men who had been bidden to a marriage feast. There was great 
vivacity of spirit, even gaiety of temper displayed, and Governor 
Swain was proud of their enthusiasm. But enthusiasm was not con- 
fined to the University. The residents of the village of Chapel Hill 
were among the earliest to enter the service. They had their repre- 
sentatives at Bethel. A company was organized early in April. 
Among its officers were R. J. Ashe, as captain; R. B. Saunders and 
R. Mallett, as second lieutenants, and Thomas G. Skinner, as fourth 
corporal. It will thus be seen that the company was under the 
direction of University men. There were other University men 
among the privates: F. A. Fetter, a tutor, was there to represent the 
faculty; J. R. Hogan, A. J. McDade, J. H. McDade, Lewis Mav- 
erick, Spier Whitaker, Jr., represented the student body and the 
alumni. There were others not associated with the University, but 
who have helped to make Chapel Hill and its \'icinity honored and 
respected. Their names will be recognized: J. F. Freeland, Jones 
Watson, E. W. Atwater, J. W. Atwater, Baxter King, W. N. 
Mickle, D. McCauley, S. F'. Patterson, and W. F. Stroud, at pres- 
ent M. C. , from the F'ourth North Carolina District. This organi- 
zation was known as the Orange Light Infantry, and became Com- 
pany D of the First North Carolina, or Bethel Regiment, so called 
because of its participation in the battle of Bethel. The regiment 
had been enlisted for six months, and after its term of service ex- 
pired, was disbanded. The Orange Light Infantry then broke up, 
and its members attached themselves to other commands. Four 
companies were raised in Chapel Hill and vicinity during the war. 
Governor Swain is responsible for the statement that thirty of these 
volunteers fell in battle or died in hospitals. Company G, Eleventh 
North Carolina, was one of those companies that was made up with 
volunteers from Chapel Hill and the surrounding sections of Orange> 
with a few from Chatham county. 

The following members of this company (G) lost their lives: 



UniotrsiUi cf North Carolina hi the O'cil War. 13 

KILLED IN BATTLE. 

First Lieutanant John H. McDade, July i, 1863; Second Lieu- 
tenant James W. Williams, July i, 1863; Second Lieutanant N. B. 
Tenny, July i, 1863; Corporals W. S. Durham, W. G. Ivey, J. J. 
Snipes, July i, 1863, Lueco Ferrell, Oct. 27, 1864; Privates Wesley 
Andrews, Cornelius Edwards, William Pendergrass, Esau Garrett, 
July I, 1863, T. J. Whittaker, Aug. 21, 1864, W. D. Flintoff, Oct. i, 
1864. 

DIED OF DISEASE. 

Captain J. R. Jennings, of yellow fever, Sept. 10, 1862; Privates 
H. T. Burgess, George Cole, Carney Haitchcock, Whitfield King, 
July, 1862; John W. Lloyd, Forest Pearson, Edward Pearson, 
April, 1862; William Potts, April, 1863; James K . Gaths, of small 
pox, Feb. 1864; W. B. Gates, William Gates, Feb. 1863; Anderson 
Turner, May 25, 1863; William Petty, Nov. 26, 1863; Corporal D. 
J. Norwood, Sept. 1863; Private J. M. Pendergrass, Oct. 1864; 
Forrest Williams, Nov. 1864; John W. Craig, Feb. 1865; John W. 
Potts, July, 1865; Edward Reaves, 1864; Rufi^n Allen, Oct. 1864; 
William Jolly, Nov, 1864. 

Our LIniversity cannot claim all of these as her sons. But their 
distinguished bravery ranks them among their comrades who had 
been more fortunate in educational advantages. We know also that 
a number of residents of Chapel Hill and its vicinity, who belonged 
to other commands, lost their lives in the service. Their names are 
as follows: 

Maj. John H. Whitaker, Capt. Elijah G. Morrow, Capt. William 
Stone, Lieutenants Wesley Lewis Battle, Richardson Mallett, Wil- 
liam N. Mickle; Sergeant Thomas L. Watson; Privates, Alex. R. 
Morrow, William Baldwin, Junius C. Battle, Willis Nunn, Henry 
Roberson; Sergeant-major Edward Jones. 

If we credit the above list, whom we know to have been residents 
of Chapel Hill, and the members of Company G. , nth North Car- 
olina, who lost their lives, to Chapel Hill, it will be seen that this 
small village and vicinity contributed no less than forty-nine of its 
sons to the cause of the Confederacy. 

Nor was enthusiasm and devotion to the call of duty confined to 
the village of Chapel Hill or to the students and alumni of the 



14 Southern Historit-al Sorkfij Papers. 

University of North Carolina. The University faculty was not slower 
than the student body. Five of them volunteered for the war. The 
other nine, with one exception, were either clergymen or beyond age. 
Of the members who volunteered, William J. Martin, the professor 
of chemistry, was made major of the nth North Carolina; was pro- 
moted lieutenant-colenel and colonel of the same; fought bravely 
through the war; was wounded at Bristow Station and surrendered 
at Appomattox. There were for the year 1 860-61 five tutors in the 
University. All of them volunteered. Four of them fell in the ser- 
vice. F. A. Fetter was with the Bethel regiment as we have already 
seen. He alone of the five sur\ived. The first of these tutors to 
seal his faith with his blood was Captain George Burgwyn Johnston, 
who died in Chapel Hill in 1863, of a decline brought on by prison 
hardships at Sandusky, Ohio. The next was Lieutenant Iowa Mich- 
igan Royster, who fell with the song of Dixie on his lips, while lead- 
ing his company to the charge at Gettysburg. He was one of 8 in 
the class of i860 who received first distinction; within four years, four 
of these filled soldiers' graves. Another of these first honor men, 
and the youngest, was Captain George Pettigrew Bryan. He was 
to have entered the ministry; but his country called and he surren- 
dered his young life at Charles City Road, in 1864. His promotion 
as Lieutenant-Colonel, arrived just after his death. The fourth tutor 
to fall was Robert W. Anderson who had been a candidate for orders 
in the Episcopal Church. He was a brother of General George 
Burgwyn Anderson and like him offered his sword and his life to his 
State He fell at the Wilderness in 1864. 

Such was the contribution of the faculty of the L'uixersity of North 
Carolinia to the fighting forces of the Confederacy. It contributed 
six volunteers; four were slain. We must add to this list the names 
of several others who had been in former years connected with the 
University in the capacity of tutors. Of the career of Jacob Thomp- 
son we have already spoken. We know also the military record of 
eight others at least: R. H. Batde, W. R. Wetmore, P. E. Spruill, T. 
C. Coleman, C. A. Mitchell, J. W. Graham, William Lee Alexander, 
and E. G. Morrow. Of these three, Spruill, Alexander, and Morrow 
were slain. The total contributions of the faculty past and present, 
of the University of North Carolina to the Confederate army was 
fourteen, of whom seven, or fifty per cent, were killed. 

When we come to the records of the alumni themselves we shall find 
that heroic enthusiasm, which had been shown by the members of the 



Unlctrsitii of North Carolma in the Ciril War. 15 

faculty, the resident students and the villagers, also characterized to the 
highest degree the conduct of the alumni. The first deaths were not 
in battle, but from disease contracted in the service. The first victim 
of disease was probabl)' John H. Fitts, of Warrenton, who died in 
June, 1 86 1. But with the first great battle of the war, the Univer- 
sity received her baptism of blood. At First Manassas she lost at 
least four of her alumni And the first student of this University 
who had attained the rank of a commissioned officer in the Con- 
federate army, and possibly the first of all, officer or pri\'ate, to fall in 
battle was, William Preston Mangum. His father, the Hon. Willie 
P. Mangum, had clung to the Union which he had ser\'ed so long 
and so well while there was hope, but when hope failed, he gladly 
gave the hope of his house to the Confederacy. The son enlisted in 
the Flat River Guards, afterwards company B, 6th North Carolina, 
and was made second lieutenant. A few days before the battle of 
First Manassas, the 6th was ordered to Winchester and from there 
was rushed forward to reinforce Beauregard at Manassas. They 
arrived on the field at the crisis of the conflict on the 2ist. Col. 
Fisher, from want of experience, had failed to throw out skirmishers 
or to form a line of battle, and when the regiment emerged, moving 
in column from a low scattered wood, Rickett's section of the Sher- 
man battery was seen directly in its front and within seventy-five 
yards of the head of the column. These guns were then firing on 
other troops and could not be turned immediately on the 6th. Two 
or three companies formed into line and delivered a volley which 
disabled the battery. The companies charged, and the guns were 
captured. Lieutenant Mangum was seen standing by one of the 
captured cannon, and while the firing was still fierce, was mortally 
wounded within an hour of the time he was first under fire. Three 
others of the students, Adolph Lastrapes and Mitchell S. Prud- 
homme, of Louisiana, and John H. Stone of Alabama, stand with 
Lieutenant Mangum at the head of that long list of alumni of this 
Institution who poured out their blood on the battle-fields from First 
Manassas to Appomattox. 

I shall now give a few statistics of the alumni. Were our Univer- 
sity records more complete, we should no doubt find that in some 
instances the figures which I shall give, would be raised much higher. 
The record of the 4th North Carolina was very brilliant at Fair Oaks 
or Seven Pines. It carried 678 men into action, and lost 77 killed and 
286 wounded, with six missing, or 54 per cent of the total number 



16 Southern Historicud Sockffj Papers. 

carried into battle. The colonel of the 4th at Fair Oaks, and the 
acting brigade commander, was George Burgwyn Anderson, who 
had been a student of this University. He had seen service in the 
West before the war, and was one of the old officers then in the ser- 
vice of the United States, who offered his sword to his native State. 
He handled the brigade with such success and skill on this occassion, 
that it brought him a brigadier's commission within a fortnight. 
The 4th had other University men among its leaders: Bryan Grimes 
was its third colonel; Captain John B. Andrews of Company C. , 
David M. Carter of Company E., and Jesse S. Barnes and John W. 
Dunham of Company F., were all University men and were con- 
spicuous for their bravery, two of them falling in battle. 

The University of North Carolina lost five of her sons at Shiloh, 
fuller records would probably double the number; she lost fourteen 
at Malvern Hill; nine at Sharpsburg, including Anderson and Branch 
who had both attained the rank of Brigadier. At Fredericksburg the 
University lost eight, and five at Chancellorsville. 

In the Gettysburg campaign, the high water mark of the Confed- 
eracy, the University lost 21. It is particularly to our credit to know 
that the regiment which sustained the heaviest loss of any regiment on 
either side in a single battle during the war, was under the command 
of a University man. The 26th North Carolina, had Zebulon B. 
Vance as its first colonel. He served until his election as governor 
in August, 1862. He was succeeded by Harry King Burgywn, said 
t6 have been at the time of his election, the youngest colonel in the 
Confederate Army, and not yet twenty-one years of age. The regi- 
ment was a parf of Pettigrew's brigade. It will be more interesting 
to give its history in the words of Col. William F. Fox, a Federal 
officer, whose account may be taken as entirely without prejudice. 
He says in his work. Regimental Losses in the Civil War, (pages 
555-556): 

"At Gettysburg, the 26th North Carolina of Pettigrew's Brigade, 
Heth's Division, went into action with an effective strength which is sta- 
ted in the regimental official report, as over 800 men ' ' [820]. ' ' They 
sustained a loss, according to Surgeon General Guild's report, of 86 
killed and 502 wounded; '^^ total, 588. In addition there were about 
120 missing, nearly all of whom must have been wounded or killed; 

* Under Lee's order of May 14, 1863, tliis included only those who were 
pronounced by the surgeons as unfit for duty. 



Universitii of North Carolina in the Ciril War. 17 

but, as they fell into the enemy's hands, they were not included in 
the hospital report. This loss occurred mostly in the first day's fight, 
where the regiment encountered the 151st Pennsylvania* and Coop- 
er's Battery of Rowley's Brigade, Doubleday's Division. The quar- 
termaster of the 26th who made the official report on July 4th, states 
that there were only 216 left for duty after the fight on the ist inst. 
The regiment then participated in Pickett's charge on the third day 
of the battle, in which it attacked the position held by Smyth's Bri- 
gade, Hoyt's Division, Second Corps. On the following day it mus- 
tered only 80 men for duty, the missing ones having fallen in the 
final and unsuccessful charge. In the battle of the first day. Captain 
Tuttle's company, [F.] went into action with three officers and 
eighty-four men; all of the officers and eighty-three of the men were 
killed or wounded. On the same day, and in the same brigade, 
(Pettigrew's), company C, of the nth North Carolina lost two officers 
killed, and 34 out of 38 men, killed or wounded; Captain Bird, of 
this company, with the four remaining men, participated in the 
charge on the third of July, and of these the flag-bearer was shot, 
and the captain brought out the flag himself This loss of the 26th 
North Carolina at GettYsburg, was the severest regimental loss 
during the war." The total loss of the regiment on the first 
day alone, based on the figures of Col. Fox, was in killed, wounded 
and missing, eighty-six and three-tenths per cent.f This loss exceeded 
by four per cent, the loss of the ist Minnesota at Gettysburg, which 
amounted to eighty-two per cent. The 141st Pennsylvania comes 
second,' with seventy-five and seven-tenths per cent. In the Franco- 
Prussian war, the heaviest loss was forty-nine per cent, sustained by 
the 1 6th German Infentry C3rd Westphalian) at Mars-la-Tour. In the 
charge of the Light Brigade, the loss was but thirty-six and seven-tenths 
per cent. Oh that the 26th North Carolina' had a Tennyson to sing 
of its charge when no one had blundered ! But this same brigade of 
Pettigrew, shattered as it was by the three days fighting, was one of 



*This regiment lost 335 men in killed, wounded and missing, on July i. 

t In killed and ivounded alone, according to Colonel F"ox, the 26th North 
Carolina stands third on the list of great losses, having seventy-one and 
seven-tenths per cent, against eighty-two and three-tenths per cent of the ist 
Texas at Sharpsburg, and seventy-six per cent of the 21st Georgia at Man- 
assas. That few of the "120 missing" from this regiment, on July i, re- 
turned, is indicated by the number reported for duty on the 4th. 
^ uuL uf Oiu uiLU, ui niucL^ jluilu mid fwc tontho pai " cGn t. 
2 



18 



SoiUhern Historical Society Papers. 



the two to whom was given the post of honor in defending the rear 
of the army of Northern Virginia on its retreat from Pennsylvania, 
and it was on this retreat that the gallant Pettigrew was called to sur- 
render his valuable life. Can this University desire more in the line 
of military distinction, than to have the distinguished honor of claim- 
ing Burgwyn and Pettigrew among her sons? 

The following figures from Colonel Fox, give the absolute losses 
of the twenty-seven Confederate regiments that suffered most at 
Gettysburg: 



ca 



26th N. C 
42d Miss . 

2d Miss, 
nth N. C. 
45th N. C . 
17th Miss. 
14th S. C. 
nth Miss.. 
55th N. C. 
nth Ga. . 
3Sth \'a. . 

6th N. C. 
i-^th Miss.. 

8th Ala . 
47th N. C. 

3d N. C . 

2d N. C. Bat 

2d .S. C 
52d N. C 

5th N. C 
32d N. C 
43d N. C 

9th Ga. 

I St Md. Bat 

3d Ark 

23d N. C ... 
57th Va . . . 



Pettigrew's .... Heth's 

Davis' • - • Heth's 

Davis' Heth's 

Pettigrew's. Heth's 

Daniel's ■ ■ - . Rodes' 

Barksdale's McLavvs'. . . 

Gregg's Pendef's . . 

Davis' Heth's. . . . 

Davis' Heth's 

G. T. Anderson's. . ■ Hood's. . . . 

Armistead's 1 Pickett's... 

Hoke's. I Early's .... 

Barksdale's. . . j McLavvs'. . . 

Wilcox's I Anderson's. 

Pettigrew's ; Heth's 

Stewart's Johnson's . . 

Daniel's Rodes' ... 



Kershaw's . - McLawb'. . 

Pettigrew's .... Heth's. ... 

Iverson's Rodes' 

Daniel's Heth's 

Daniel's Heth's 

G. T. Anderson's ... Hood's .. 

Stewart's Johnson's . 

Robertson's I Hood's . . . 

Iverson's Rodes'.... 

Armistead's I Pickett's. . 



'O 






^ 






^ 


CA! 1 


,0 


7) 




»g 


I-* 





86 
60 

49 
50 
46 
40 
26 
32 
39 
32 
23 
20 
28 
22 
21 
29 
29 
27 
33 
31 
26 
21 
28 

25 
26 

41 
35 



502 
205 
183 
159 
173 
160 
220 
170 

^59 
162 

147 
131 
137 
-39 
140 
127 
124 
125 
114 
112 
n6 
126 
115 
119 
n6 

93 
105 



708 
265 
232 
209 
219 

2GO 
252 
202 
198 
194 
170 
172 

165 
161 
161 

153 
154 
147 
143 
142 

147 
143 
144 
142 

134 
144 



IfAust not fail to mention in this connection the record of Com- 
pany C, nth North Carolina, which was with Pettigrew at Gettys- 
burg on July I, and lost a captain and lieutenant, and thirty-four out 
of thirty-eight men. The company had three separate captains on 
that terrible day. The first was made major; the second, Thomas 
Watson Cooper, class of i860, was killed; the third, Edward R. Out- 



University/ of North Carolina in the Civil War. 19 

law, freshman 1859-60, was promoted from lieutenant. Hoke's North 
Carolina brigade was not less distinguished for bravery than those 
already mentioned; with a single Louisiana brigade as support, it 
chai'ged across the tield on the third day, drove back the enemy, 
captured 100 prisoners and four flags. The brigade was commanded 
in its charge by Isaac E. Avery, colonel of the 6th North Carolina, 
who had been a student here 1847-48. He was wounded in the 
charge, and lived only long enough to write on an envelope crimson 
with his blood: " Major Tate, tell my father I died with my face to 
the foe." 

Need we be surprised that with such examples of heroism as these, 
the death-roll of this University in the Gettysburg campaign foots, 
up a score ? Gen. James Johnston Pettigrew, Col. Harry King Bur- 
gwyn. Col. Isaac Erwin Avery, Lieut. -Col. Maurice Thompson 
Smith, Maj. Owen Neil Brown, Maj. George Mcintosh Clark, Capt. 
Elijah Graham Morrow, Capt. Nicholas Collin Hughes, Capt. 
Thomas Watson Cooper, Capt. George Thomas Baskerville, Capt. 
Toel Clifton Blake, Capt. Thomas Oliver Closs, Capt. Edward 
Fletcher Satterfield, Capt. Samuel Wiley Gray, Lieut. Wesley Lewis 
Battle, Lieut. William Henry Gibson, Lieut. John Henderson 
McDade, Lieut. Richardson Mallett, Lieut. Jesse H. Person, Lieut. 
Iowa Michigan Royster, Lieut. William Henry Graham Webb. 

At Vicksburg the University lost four; at Chickamauga seven; at 
the Widerness six; at Spotsylvania Courthouse five, including 
Thomas M. Garrett whose commission as Brigadier-General arrived 
the day after his death. In the Atlanta campaign she lost nine; 
including Lieutenant- General Polk. At Bentonsville, the last battle in 
North Carolina, and the last struggle of Johnston's army, Lt.-Col. 
John D. Taylor, class of 1853, carried the first North Carolina bat- 
talion into battle with 267 men. He lost 152 men, or fifty-seven per 
cent. Lt.-Col. Taylor lost an arm, and Lieut. -Col. Edward Mallett, 
who commanded a regiment, lost his life. Capt. John H. D. Fain, 
the only child of his mother, fell on the last day of the last fight 
before Petersburg, April 2, 1865; Felix Tankersley was killed 
within three days of Lee's surrender; and James J. Phillips died from 
the effects of wounds received after Lee's surrender, but before the 
news had reached his cavalry commander. From First Manassas to 
Appomattox, the University saw the life blood of her alumni poured 
out in lavish profusion. From Gettysburg to Missouri and Texas; 
on every important battlefield of the war, by death in battle, by death 
from wounds, by disease and as prisoners of war, did the sons of 



20 Southern Historical Society Papers. 

this University manifest their devotion to the cause. The Univer- 
sity of North Carohna saw its ahmmi occupying positions in the 
Confederate army from private to Lieutenant-General, and it made 
its offerinos on the altar of the grim god of war from every rank 
with the sole exception of major-general, and she was not less lib- 
eral with the highest in rank than with the lowest. Of the Confed- 
erate officers highest in rank who were slain in battle, one had at- 
tained the rank of general; three were lieutenant-generals and here 
again, the University was called on to give more than her share to 
the sacrifice, in the person of Leonidas Polk. She lost besides, 
Lieutenant-General Polk, four Brigadier-Generals, Anderson, 
Branch, Garrottand Pettigrew, eleven colonels, nine lieutenant-colo- 
nels and eight majors. 

This University claims further, more than her proportion of the 
commanders of North Carolina regiments that became distinguished 
because of their heavy losses in individual battles. There are nine 
regiments of which we have records of the numbers carried into 
battle, and the losses sustained in each. Thus the 33rd North Car- 
olina, under the command of C. M. Avery, met with a loss of 
forty-one and four-tenths per cent at Chancellorsville; the 3d North 
Carolina lost fifty per cent at Gettysburg; the 4th North Carolina 
under G. B. Anderson, fifty-four and four-tenths per cent at Seven 
Pines; the 7th North Carolina, fifty-six and two-tenths per cent at 
Seven Days: the i8th, under R. H. Cowan, fifty-six and five-tenths 
per cent at Seven Days; the jist North Carolina battalion, under 
John D. Taylor, fifty seven per cent at Bentonsville; the 27th North 
Carolina, sixty-one and two-tenths per cent at Sharpsburg; the 2nd 
North Carolina battalion, sixty-three and seven-tenths per cent at 
Gettysburg; the 26th North Carolina, under H. K. Burgwyn, 
eighty-six and three-tenths per cent at Gettysburg. It will be seen 
that four of the nine regiments were under command of University 
men at the time of meeting their heaviest loss. 

The following list of North Carolina regiments suffering heavy losses 
is extracted from Colonel Fox's book. It is given for general infor- 
mation and for the reason that about one-half of these regiments at 
the time of sustaining their losses had University men as colonels or 
lieutenant-colonels [viz: 33, 26, 21, 4, 23, 35,49 (Major), 18, 48, 13, 
6, 49, 57, 48 (Major), 18, 13, 17, 4, 33, 23, 18, 26, 11, 45, 55, 6, 5, 
43. 23]: 



University of North Carolina in the Ciril War. 



21 



Regriment. 




Newbern , 



Front Royal 

Fair Oaks, May 31-June i, 62 



Oak Grove, June 25. 

Mechanicsville 

Gaines' Mill 

Malvern Hill 




Seven Days. 



Crampton's Gap, Md. 
Sharpsburg 



Fredericksburg. 



Chancellorsville. 



5 
21 

77 
i! 
18 
36 
70 
21 
22 
18 
14 
35 
45 
51 
19 
27 
II 
46 
31 
31 
41 
18 
16 
10 
16 
32 
17 
10 

17 
13 
13 

5 
16 

6 
34 
47 
31 
38 
30 
37 
45 
32 
32 
34 
30 
18 

15 
25 



59 
286 

145 
70 

105 
202 
no 
106 

91 

75 
218 
179 
160 
130 
III 

48 
207 
186 
168 
149 
142 
143 
115 

61 
192 
161 

93 
76 

77 
75 
81 

49 
48 

193 
167 

178 
141 

139 
127 
110 

lOI 

113 
83 
96 

no 

116 

98 



5 
18 
16 



124 



7 

17 
15 

'58 
66 

35 
27 



204 

87 
80 

369 
169 
88 
142 
272 
131 
133 
127 

105 
253 
224 
212 
149 
138 
183 
253 
217 
199 
190 
160 
159 
125 
77 
224 
178 
103 

93 

90 

88 

86 

65 

54 

227 

214 

216 

126 

184 

164 

213 

199 

180 

144 

126 

148 

131 
124 



99 



Southern Historical Society Papers. 



Reofiment. 



Battle. 



26th N. C... 

nth " 

45th " .... 

55th " .. 

6th " .... 

47th " 

3d " I 

2d " Bat.. .| 

52d " Regt..[ 

5th " 

32d " 

43d " :| 

23d " ; 

51st " 

51st " I 

8th " I 

31st " ! 



Gettysburg 

Fort Wagner 

Charleston Harbor 



TJ 




0) 




TJ 


bi) 


C 


c 


3 


oo 





in 1 




S 1 











!e 



86 
50 
46 

39 
20 
21 
29 
29 
33 
31 
26 
21 

41 
16 

17 

4 

13 



502 
159 
173 
159 
131 
140 
127 
124 
114 
112 
116 
126 
93 
52 
60 

43 
32 



708 
209 
219 
198 
172 
161 
156 

153 
147 

143 
142 
147 

134 
68 

77 
47 
45 



It has been ascertained that 312 of the students and graduates of 
this University lost their lives in the Confederate service. Taking 
the membership of the Dialectic and Philanthropic societies as rep- 
resenting the total matriculation in the University for any given pe- 
riod, it will be found that there were matriculated in the University 
in the forty-three years, 1825 to 1867 inclusive,* just 2929 persons. 
Out of these we know that 190, at least, had died before the war 
began. This will lea\'e 2739 possible living alumni, (matriculates 
and graduates), of the In.stitution. Out of this number, 2729, we 
know that 312, or 11.39 P^i" cent, lost their lives m the Confederate 
service. 

It will perhaps never be accurately known how many saw service. 
Of the 2739 matriculates mentioned above as probably alive in 1861, 
we know that 1078, or 39.35 per cent, of the total enrollment of the 
University for the forty-three years, 1825-1867, were in the Confed- 
erate army. 

If we examine the records for the ten years just before the war, 
we shall find that there were 1331 matriculates between 1851 and i860 
inclusive; that out of these 1331 at least 759 or fifty-six and two- 



* This date has been taken because a number of ex-soldiers pursued stu- 
dies in the University after the war was over. 



Universitii of North Carolina in the Cicil War. 23 

tenths per cent, saw service in the Confederate States army, and 
they were in all grades from private to brigadier-general. Of the 
759 that we know, 234 were killed. This means that thirty per cent, 
of those who went into the Confederate service from the University 
of North Carolina for those ten years, sealed their faith with their 
blood. This death rate is very near the average of the per cent, 
of loss sustained by North Carolina troops as a whole, and represents 
seventeen and five-tenths per cent, of the total enrollment of the 
University for the ten years. In other words, the proportional loss 
sustained on the total enrollment of students for these ten years, was 
just about twice as great as that sustained by the Federal army. The 
rates of losses of that army, moreover, were greater than were those 
in the Crimean, or in the Franco-Prussian war. If we reduce this 
proportion to its proper basis of enlisted men, it will be found that 
the losses in the Federal army from all causes, death in battle, death 
from wounds, death by disease and in prison, was eight and six- 
tenths per cent.* Of the 1078 University men who are known to 
have served in the Confederate army, we know that 312, or 28. 94 
per cent lost their lives; more complete records of their service would 
no doubt reduce this per cent, but it is not probable that the most 
complete returns of the service of our students would reduce it to 
less than twenty-five per cent or three times as heavy as the losses 
sustained by the Federal army. 

It will give us a clearer conception of the immense energy dis- 
played by this University, to compare its losses with the losses of 
some other institutions. The University of Virginia Memorial gives 
the number of students of that institution who were killed, as 198. 
Professor Trent estimates that there were perhaps 300 killed in all, 
and that twenty-five per cent of its students saw service in the C. S. 
A. The number of students of the Virginia Military Institute repor- 
ted as killed, was 171. I have found no figures for other Southern 
institutions. Of northern institutions we find that all contributed 
more or less of their graduates to the army of the Union. Lafayette 
College, Pennsylvania, had 226 students who served in that army. 
Of its regular graduates living, and not beyond the age for military 
service, twenty-six per cent were in the army. The average of ser- 



* See Col. Fo.x's article in The Cenhuy, on the chance of being hit in bat- 
tle. In his larger work, Regimental Losses, he says that the general Con- 
federate loss in killed and zuou?ided, was nearly ten per cent, while the Fed- 
eral loss in killed and wounded, was nearly five per cent. 



24 Southern Hisforical Societ)/ Papers. 

vice for the New England colleges, was 23 per cent; Yale leads the 
list with twenty-five per cent. Between 1825 and 1864, 1384 students 
received the degree of A. B. from the University of North Carolina; 
(){ these, we know that 537, or nearly forty per cent., were in the 
service of the Confederate States. 

But this comparison is unjust to the University of North Carolina, 
for I have mentioned already the enthusiasm with which her students 
rushed away to battle without finishing their work. There were 
eighty members of the Freshman class of 1859-60. But a single one 
(Titus W. CarrJ, remained to complete his studies and he was ren- 
dered unfit for service by feeble health. The class of i860 had eigh- 
ty-four members; two of them died in i860; of the remaining eighty- 
two, it seems from the best evidence at hand, that eighty entered the 
Confederate service; of these 80, 23, or 28.75 P^i" cent were killed. 
There were few graduates the next year. Five members of the fac- 
ulty had gone as we have already seen. The ha Is of the Univer- 
sity which had presented such a scene of bustling activity a k\v 
years before, were now almost deserted. There was danger that the 
Institution would be compelled to close from the sheer lack of stu- 
dents. 

Further, the enforcement of the conscription acts threatened to 
bring about the same result. The trustees then determined to ap- 
peal to President Davis in behalf of the institution and its students. 
Mr. Davis had said at the beginning of the war, that ' ' the seed corn 
must not be ground up." At their meeting in Raleigh, Octobers, 
1863, the trustees resolved, "That the President of the University 
be authorized to correspond with the President of the Confederate 
States, asking a suspension of any order or regulation which may 
have been issued for the conscription of students of the University, 
untill the end of the present session, and also with a view to a gen- 
eral exemption of young men advanced in liberal studies, until they 
shall complete their college course. 

' ' That the President of the University open correspondence with 
the heads of other literary institutions of the Confederacy, proposing 
the adoption of a general regulation, exempting for a limited time 
from military service, the members of the fwo higher classes of our 
colleges, to enable them to attain the degree of Bachelor of Arts." 

In accord with these instructions. Gov. Swain addressed the fol- 
lowing letter to President Davis : 



Universiti) of North Carolina in the Ciril \]ar. 25 

University of North Carolina, 
Chapel Hill, N. C, October ij, i86^. 

" To his Excellency, Jefferson Davis, 

President of the Confederate States. 

Sir — The accompaning resolutions, adopted by the trustees of 
this institution at their regular meeting in Raleigh, on the eighth 
instant, make it my duty to open a correspondence with you on the 
subject to which they relate. 

A simple statement of the facts, which seem to me to be pertinent, 
without any attempt to illustrate and enforce them by argument, will, 
I suppose, sufficiently accomplish the purposes of the trustees. 

At the close of the collegiate year 1859-60 (June 7th, i860), the 
whole number of students in our catalogue was 430. Of these, 245 
were from North Carolina, 29 from Tennessee, 28 from Louisiana, 
28 from Mississippi, 26 from Alabama, 24 from South Carolina, 17 
from Texas, 14 from Georgia, 5 from Virginia, 4 from Florida, 2 
from Arkansas, 2 from Kentucky, 2 from Missouri, 2 from California, 
I from Iowa, i from New Mexico, i from Ohio. They were distrib- 
uted in the four classes as follows: Seniors 84, Juniors 102, Sopho- 
mores 125, Freshmen 80. 

Of the eight young men who received the first distinction in the 
Senior class, four are in the grave, and a fifth a wounded prisoner. 
More than a seventh of the aggregate number of graduates are 
known to have fallen in battle. 

The Freshman class of eighty members pressed into service with 
such impetuosity, that but a single individual remained to graduate 
at the last commencement [Titus W. Carr]; and he in the interve- 
ning time had entered the army, been discharged on account of im- 
paired health, and was permitted by special favor to rejoin his class. 

The faculty at that time was composed of fourteen members, no 
one of whom was liable to conscription. Five of the fourteen were 
permitted by the trustees to volunteer. One of these has recently 
returned from a long imprisonment in Ohio, with a ruined constitu- 
tion, [G. B. Johnston]. A second is a wounded prisoner, now at 
Baltimore. A third fell at Gettysburg, [I. M. Royster]. The 
remaining two are in active field service at present. 

The nine gentlemen who now constitute the corps of instructors 
are, with a single exception, clergymen, or laymen beyond the age 
of conscription. No one of them has a son of the requisite age, who 
has not entered the service as a volunteer. Five of the eieht sons 



26 Southern HlMorical Sociefi/ Papers. 

of members of the faculty are now in active service; one fell mortally 
wounded at Gettysburg, [W. L. Battle] ; another at South Moun- 
tain, [J. C. Battle]. 

The village of Chapel Hill owes its existence to the University, 
and is of course materially affected by the prosperity or decline of 
the institution. The young men of the village responded to the call 
of the country with the same alacrity which characterized the college 
classes; and fifteen of them — a larger proportion than is exhibited in 
any other town or village in the State — have already fallen in battle. 
The departed are more numerous than the survivors; and the melan- 
choly fact is prominent with respect to both the village and the Uni- 
versity, that the most promising young men have been the earliest 
victims. 

Without entering into further details, permit me to assure you as 
the result of extensive and careful observation and inquiry, that I 
know of no similar institution or community in the Confederacy that 
has rendered greater services, or endured greater losses and priva- 
tions, than the University of North Carolina, and the village of 
Chapel Hill. 

The number of students at present here is 63; of whom 55 are 
from North Carolina, 4 from Virginia, 2 from South Carolina, and i 
from Alabama; 9 Seniors, 13 Juniors, 14 Sophomores, and 27 Fresh- 
men. 

A rigid enforcement of the conscription act may take from us nine 
or ten young men with physical constitutions in general, better sui- 
ted to the quiet pursuits of literature and science than to military 
service. They can make no appreciable addition to the army; but 
their withdrawal may very seriously affect our organization, and in 
its ultimate effects cause us to close the doors of the oldest Univer- 
sity at present accessible to the students of the Confederacy. 

It can scarcely be necessary to intimate that with a slender endow- 
ment, and a diminution of more than $20,000 in annual receipts for 
tuition, it is at present very difficult, and may soon be impossible to 
sustain the institution. The exemption of professors from the oper- 
ation of the conscript act is a sufficient indication that the annihila- 
tion of the best established colleges in the country, was not the pur- 
pose of our Congress; and I can but hope, with the eminent gentle- 
men who have made me their organ on this occasion, that it will 
never be permitted to produce effects which I am satisfied no one 
would more deeply deplore than yourself. 



University of North Carolina in the Civil War. 27 

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, your obe- 
dient servant, 

D. L. Swain.* 

This appeal was not 'in vain. Orders were issued from the Con- 
script office to Captain Landis, the district enrolhng- officer, to grant 
the exemptions requested. Col. Peter Mallett, the commandant of 
conscripts, in communicating the information to (jovernor Swain 
says: " In performing this duty, Governor, I must express to you 
the great gratification and interest felt in perusing the report, which 
will be filed at this office with pride as a North Carolinian, as a relic 
rather than as a public document." 

But this exemption did not relieve all the necessities of the Insti- 
tution. On the 5th of March, 1864, the trustees instructed Governor 
Manly their secretary, to forward a second petition, praying for the 
exemption of the Freshman and Sophomore classes. It is as fol- 
lows : 

Hon. James A. Seddon, Secretary of War. 

The trustees of the University of North Carolina at a late meet- 
ing adopted the resolution, a copy of which is hereto attached, 
marked A, to which I beg leave to invite your attention. 

By a report made to the Executive Committee of the trustees. 
Governor Swain, the President of the University — the composition 
of the four classes are as follows: 

There are nine (9) members of the Senior Class; of these, two 
(2) have joined the army, two have substitutes, two have seen hard 
service m the army, one is under eighteen years of age and one per- 
manently disabled. 

Junior Class, consisting of fifteen members; of these, seven have 
substitutes, five have been in the army, two are under eighteen years 
of age, and one, F. R. Bryan, is dead. This class at the close of 
the Sophomore year numbered thirty, all of whom, except fifteen 
named above, are supposed to be in the army. 

These two classes were heretofore, by your kind favor, granted 
permission to finish their collegiate course, which the Senior Class 
will have accomplished by the first Thursday in June next. 

Sophomore Class. This class at the end of its Freshman year, 
numbered twenty-four; of these sixteen are supposed to have entered 



* Printed in Mrs. Spencer's Last Ninety Days of the War in North Caro- 
lina, pages 257-260. 



28 SoKthern Historical Societi/ Papers. 

the army. Of the nine now remaining, three are exempt from phys- 
ical disability, and one or more of these three left the class on that 
account. In a communication by President Swain to Governor 
Vance he says; " Our Sophomore Class is now reduced to six regu- 
lar members. Morehead (who has a substitute, an Englishman over 
conscript age) is the best, and Mickle, the second best scholar in it. 
The latter has a slender constitution, and is in delicate health." 

Freshman Class. Of the twenty-seven members of this class, 
twenty-four are under age; and one over eighteen years of age, 
Julius C. Mills of Caswell, who has a substitute. The remaining two 
are Julius S. Barlow of Edgecombe, born January 5, 1845, and Isaac 
R. Strayhorn of Orange, born August 7th, 1845. 

I have been thus minute in relation to the Sophomore and Fresh- 
man Classes, for the reason that on them, the reliance for the contin- 
uation of the exercises of the Institution must mainly depend. It 
will be seen by reference to the numbers of the Sophomore and 
Freshman classes and their ages, but few, very kw soldiers can be 
added to the army of the Confederacy, whilst the removal of that 
small number may so reduce the classes as to render it necessary to 
discontinue the exercises of the Institution, one of the oldest and 
largest in the Confederacy; and disband the able and venerable corps 
of instructors, some of whom have devoted their services to the 
Institution for more than a quarter of a century, and others for nearly 
a half century. To disband this able body in their declining years, 
when their accustomed salaries are so necessary to their comfort in 
the evening of life, would seem to be ingratitude. To continue 
those salaries without corresponding service, would subject the trus- 
tees to merited censure. 

And although the limited number instructed might not seem to 
justify the salaries paid, yet when we consider that this Institution 
numbered between four and five hundred students at the commence- 
ment of this war, by whom every state in the Confederacy was re])- 
resented, it is most respectfully submitted whether the trustees are 
not justified, even at the sacrifice of their scanty means, in using all 
exertion to keep the Institution in its present condition of usefulness, 
ready to meet the demands of the Confederacy when our independ- 
ence shall be blessed with peace. 

Pardon me sir, for suggesting in behalf of the trustees that your 
aid in continuing these classes will greatly contribute to the contin- 
uance of the Institution, whilst the army, to whose efficiency your 
first duty is due, will not be materially affected. 



Uiiwersifij of North Otrolina in the Civil W<(r. 29 

Allow me to call to your attention, the letter written you by Gov- 
ernor Swain, on the 15th October, 1863, in which there are some 
interesting details connected with the University. 

By order of the Board of Trustees. 

Chas. Manly, Secretary. 

To this request Mr. Seddon replied under date of March 10, 1864: 
" I cannot see in the grounds presented such peculiar or exceptional 
circumstances as will justify departure from the rules acted on in 
many similar instances. Youths under eighteen will be allowed to 
continue their studies, those over, capable of military service, will 
best discharge their duty and find their highest training in defending 
their country in the field." 

When this decision became known at the University in the 
spring of 1864, the nine or ten students who were subject to 
conscription went into the army, and others went with them to 
share their fortunes. The catalogue shows but sixty matricu- 
lates for the whole scholastic year of 1863-64; the next was little 
better. The report of attendance, December 29, 1864, is interest- 
ing: Senior class, seven; Junior class, two; George Slover and 
J. T. Smith; first distinction to Smith, second to Slover. Sopho- 
more class, twelve; of these, two absent from examination. Fresh- 
man class, nineteen. Even the catalogues are a silent witness of the 
intensity of the struggle. They are smaller, are on inferior . paper, 
and have that oily look peculiar to Confederate imprints. The dif- 
ficulties in the way of the faculty were many, but they struggled on. 
Dr. Charles Phillips rang the college bell with his own hands for the 
last six months, although there were hardly a dozen boys in the 
Institution. These, with two or three exceptions, were from the vil- 
lage. When the FederaJ army appeared, these two or three left the 
University, and walked to their homes in the neighboring counties, 
but the exercises went on, morning and evening prayers were atten- 
ded as usual, even when Federal troops were on the campus. 

Under these circumstances, i&w students had either the opportu- 
nity or desire to continue their course unbroken. Many began their 
studies before the war; a few of these came back, lame and halting, 
or perhaps with an arm or a leg missing. We find numerous records 
like these: William Harrison Craig, matriculated 1857, C. S. A., A. 
B. 1868; or like this, Walter Clark, Adj. C. S, A.. A. B. 1864, 



30 Southern Historical Society Papers. 

Lieut. -Col. C. S. A.; or like Melvin E. Carter, Capt. C. S A., 
matriculated 1867. 

The commencement of 1865 was the climax of sorrows. The 
Senior class on the first of June, consisted of fifteen members, but 
because of the exigencies of the country only William Curtis Prout 
was permitted to complete the course. Yet, because they accepted 
the invitation of the president to perform the usual exercises on com- 
mencement day, Edward G. Prout, Henry A. London and John R. 
D. Shepard were awarded A. B. ; Junior class, o; Sophomore, 5; 
Freshman class, 2. There was not a single visitor from a distance 
to attend the commencement of 1865, save some thirty Federal sol- 
diers, who had been detailed to remain and keep order. What a 
sad contrast was this to the brilliant commencement of 1859, which 
was graced by the presence of the President of the United States 
and of his Secretary of the Interior (Jacob Thompson), who was an 
alumnus of the University, with its graduating class of ninety-two 
members, the second largest in the history of the institution ! 

The last year of the war was not only a period of trial for the 
University, but for the village as well; for, being a University town, 
its main support then as now, was drawn directly or indirectly, from 
the University. When it declined, the village suffered in direct pro- 
portion. This difficulty was relieved to some extent by the arrival 
of refugees from other parts. Their coming created a demand for 
houses and gave some impetus to trade. Many of the young men 
had gone to the army, as we have seen. At first, whenever a few 
boys returned on furlough, parties, tableaux, dances, &c. , Were got- 
ten up in their honor. But this stopped after Gettysburg. The 
cords of sorrow were being tightened around her. But its com- 
munity brought all men closer together; charity was more freely dis- 
tributed, and the pride of station was forgotten. The bands of 
common sympathy became stronger as the pangs of common suf- 
ferings became more intense. The hardness of life was little thought 
of then; rich and poor fared alike; for all comforts and most necessities 
went to the soldiers in the field. " When a whole village poured in 
and around one church building to hear the ministers of every de- 
nomination pray the parting prayers and invoke the farewell bless- 
ings in unison on the village boys, there was little room for sectarian 
feeling, Christians of every name drew nearer to each other. People 
who wept and prayed and rejoiced together as we did for four years, 
learned to love each other more. The higher and nobler and more 



Unwersity of North Carolina in the Civil War. 31 

generous impulses of our nature were brought constantly into action, 
stimulated by the heroic endurance and splendid gallantry of our 
soldiers. ' ' '^ 

The village of Chapel Hill was taken possession of by Federal 
troops on April 17, 1865. The brigade was under the command of 
General S. D. Atkins, of Illinois, and was composed of 4,000 
Michigan cavalry. He moved his division westward seventeen days 
later, except a single company, which occupied the college build- 
ings for more than two months. During May General Couch passed 
through the village at the head of 12,000 men. It is worthy of note 
that the entire damage sustained by the village and college from the 
invaders is estimated by Governor Swain not to have exceeded $ico. 
Nor was this occupation without a tinge of romance, for in the midst 
of these surroundings the daughter of Governor Swain was wooed 
and won by General Atkins, and Cupid began the work of Recon- 
struction. 

The following summary of statistics of Confederate dead of the 
University of North Carolina is made up from the list prepared 
by Colonel William L. Saunders for the four tablets in Memo- 
rial Hall (which contain 271 names, and give rank and class), 
from the additions to the list found in the catalogue of the Dia- 
lectic Society (containing 308 names), edited by Dr. William J. 
Battle; from the additions found in the Register of the Philan- 
thropic Society (containing 272 names), edited by the present 
writer; from the the " Biographical Sketches of the Confederate dead 
of the University of North Carolina" (containing 162 names), 
edited by the present writer and published in the North Carolina 
Universitv Magazine, 1887-91, and from other miscellaneous sources, 
chiefly correspondence: 

Total Number of Confederate Dead, 312. 
By place of residence at time of matriculation in the University : 

Arkansas, - - - i Virginia, - - - - 8 

California, - - - i Florida, - - - - 9 

Iowa, - - . - I Mississippi, - - -11 

Missouri, - - - - i Tennessee, - - -11 

Texas, - - . - 4 Louisiana, - - - 14 

South Carolina, - - 5 Alabama, - - - - 18 

Georgia, - - - - 7 North Carolina, - - 221 

* Mrs. C. P. Spencer's correspondence with author and her Last Ninety 
Days of the War in North Carolina. 



32 



Soiitlwrii IJistorical Societi/ Papers. 



Editors, 

Civil Engineers, 

Preachers, 

Merchants, 

Physicians, 



Lieutenant-General, 

Brigadier-Generals, 

Colonels, - 

Lieutenant-Colonels, 

Majors, 

Adjutants, 

Sergeant-Majors, 



By Occupation : 

2 Teachers, - 



8 
13 



14 

Farmers, - - - - 27 

Lawyers, - - - - 62 
No occupation or unknown, 173 



By Rank in Service : 



I 

4 
12 

6 

17 

4 

2 



Surgeons and assistants. 

Aides, 

Captains, - 

Lieutenants, 

Corporals and Sergeants, 

Privates, - 



5 

2 

67 

69 

23 
100 



Born/ of Death. 

Died of wounds (including Died of disease and in pris- 

all of those whose wounds on, - - - - 97 

proved almost immedia- Killed in battle, - - 160 

tely fatal), - - - 55 

University Men in the Closing Days of the War. 

\\\ the closing days of the struggle, University men, as usual, came 
to the rescue of their suffering country and sought to lighten the 
burthen of its sorrows. From the time of the fall of Vicksburg' and 
the defeat at Gettysburg, it became evident to thoughtful men that 
the main hope of the Confederacy lay in negotiation with the United 
States. \\\ 1 86 1 Governor Graham had advised that the State of 
North Carolina hold her destiny in her own hands, instead of 
surrendering it to others. Time had proved the value of his posi- 
tion, and he was now a leader in the movement that looked toward 
peace with the United States, but the legal power of ending the war 
had been put by the Confederate Constitution into the hands of the 
President. Governor Graham was not among the confidential friends 
of President Davis, but worked through others, and had in this way 
a hand in setting on foot the Hampton Roads Conference. He was 
not a member of this Conference, but was President pro tern, of the 
Confederate Senate during the absence of Mr. Hunter on that mis- 
sion. 



University of North Carolina in the Civil War. 33 

After the failure of the Conference Governor Graham gave notice 
in the Confederate Senate that he would soon introduce a resolution 
in favor of opening negotiations with the United States upon the 
basis of a return to the Union by the States of the Confederacy. 
But the notice was not favorably received, and the Confederacy went 
down to its doom. When the crash came he was the same calm, 
conservative statesman that he had ever been, and was chosen by 
Governor Vance to accompany Governor Swain as an ambassador of 
peace to meet the incoming army of General Sherman. They sur- 
rendered the city of Raleigh to him and secured from him a promise 
of protection, which promise was, as a rule, observed. It was also 
through their efforts on this mission that the University was pro- 
tected from vandalism. Besides this mission Governor Swain was 
one of the North Carolinians who was invited to Washington by 
President Johnson in the spring of 1865, to consult on the ways of 
restoring the State to the Union. B. F. Moore (A. B., 1820) and 
Robert P. Dick (A. B., 1843) were also members of this committee. 

It must be kept in mind also that the consent of the Federal ad- 
ministration to the Hampton Roads Conference, the last ray of hope 
of the Confederacy, had been brought about largely through the 
influence of Francis P. Blair, who had been a student here.* Per- 
haps no student of this University has had a more remarkable career. 
He was at first a free soiler; then a Republican. He was the one 
leader of the unconditional Union men in Missouri, and fused former 
Democrats and former Republicans into a single strong body of uncon- 
ditional Union men. The governor of the State and both houses of 
the assembly were Southern in sentiment, but Blair organized the 
German companies, which had been known as Wide-awakes in the 
presidential campaign, into companies of home guards, drilled them, 
armed them as he found means, and with them began to dominate 
the State. It was largely due to the influence of the Home Guards 
that a majority of 80,000 was given for the Union in February, 1861. 

* Other alumni cast their fortunes with the Union as follows: Prof. Benj. S. 
Hedrick differed so radically in his political views from the ruling element, 
and was so outspoken that public sentiment forced his dismission from the 
faculty as early as 1856; another member, Rev. Solomon Pool, escaped the 
same fortune, probably, by being more circumspect in his language; Junius 
B. Wheeler served as engineer, assistant professor at West Point, and brevet 
colonel; Edward Jones Mallett was paymaster-general, 1862-65; Willie P. 
Mangum, Jr., was consul and vice-consul general in China and Japan, 1861- 
1881. 



34 Southern Historical Society Papers. 

This vote broke down the strength of the secessionists and virtually 
turned the State over to Blair and his Home Guards. There were 
65,000 stand of arms in the Federal Arsenal in St. Louis. It was 
the purpose of the State authorities to seize these arms, but the or- 
ganizations of Blair prevented. Finally Blair rebelled against the 
power of the State and under his advice the State troops of Missouri 
were captureti on May 10, 1861, without waiting for the necessary 
orders from Washington. This put an end to Southern supremacy 
and saved Missouri and Kentucky to the Union. Blair became a 
Major-General in the Union army and commanded the 17th corps 
on Sherman's march to the sea. 

XI. University Men and Confederate Education. 

Such was the position of the alumni of the University in the field 
and in the legislative and executive branches of the general govern- 
ment of the Confederacy. Their work for Confederate Education 
was not less noticeable. Archibald D. Murphey was the first man to 
agitate the question of public schools in North Carolina. Bartlett 
Yancey drew the bill under which the public schools were organized, 
and Calvin H. Wiley was the organizer. These were all University 
men. Wiley succeeded in giving to North Carolina the best public 
school system that there w^as in the South before the war. He was 
Superintendent of Public Instruction in North Carolina during the 
war, and through his efforts, with the assistance of Governor Vance, 
the public schools of the State were kept open during the whole of 
the momentous period. In his report to Governor Vance in 1863 
he says: "It is a subject of devout gratitude to one to be able to 
announce that our common schools still live and are full of glorious 
promise. Through all this dark night of storm their cheerful radi- 
ance has been seen on every hill and in every valley of our dear old 
State; and while the whole continent reels with the shock of terrible 
and ruthless w^ar, covering the face of nature with ruin and desola- 
tion, there are here scattered through the wilderness hundreds of 
humming hives where thousands of youthful minds are busily learn- 
ing those peaceful arts which, under the blessing of God, are to pre- 
serve our civilization and to aid in perpetuating the liberty and inde- 
pendence for which this generation is manfully contending." In the 
same year (1H63) fifty counties reported 35,495 pupils, and fifty-four 
counties received $240,685.38 for schools. It is probable that there 
were then not less than 50,000 children in the State attending school. 



University of North Carolina in the Civil War. 35 

This beneficent system remained vigorous to the end. The pubHc 
school was maintained in North Carohna throughout the war, except 
in those sections where the Federals had control, and Sherman's 
army on its entrance into Raleigh found Dr. Wiley at his desk re- 
ceiving reports and tabulating statements on the condition of the 
schools. 

The position of Dr. Wiley among Southern educators, generally, 
was not less distinguished. He was regarded by all as an honored 
and trusted leader.* Another alumnus, Colonel William Bingham, 
class of 1856, remained at the head of his private school for boys 
during the whole of the war period. The school was continvied at 
Oaks, in Orange county, and ten miles from a railroad, until the 
winter of 1864-65, when it was removed to Mebane, N. C. It was 
then put under a military organization, it officers were commissioned 
by the State, and the cadets were exempted from duty until eighteen 
years of age. The difficulties were great, one of the most serious 
being the lack of the necessary books. This want was met by the 
preparation of Bingham's series of English and Latin text-books, 
which have been republished since the war and are now used in 
every State of the Union. f 

Perhaps the most curious of the educational enterprises of our 
alumni was the law school for Confederate prisoners, established on 
Johnson's Island in 1863 and 1864, by Joseph J. Davis (1847-50), 
who was then a prisoner of war. 

XII. Governor Vance and the Part of North Carolina 

IN THE War. 

But it is not until we come to the actual administration of affairs 
in North Carolina that we find the most exalted position that was 
filled by a son of this University, for it was Zebulon B. Vance who 
earned for himself the distinguishing epithet of " the War Govei^nor 
of the South." This proud title was well deserved and has been 
generally recognized throughout the Union. It was earned through 
the masterful ability displayed by Governor Vance in his administra- 
tion of the economic resources of the State. It was by his instru- 
mentality largely that the blockade trade, carried on through the 

*See Proceedings of the Convention of Teachers of the Confederate 
States, at Columbia, S. C, April 28, 1863 (Macon, Ga., 1863,). 

t Latin Grammar, Greensboro, 1863; Caesar's Commentaries, Greensboro, 
1864. 



36 Southern Historical Society Papers. 

port of Wilmington during 1863-64, became for a considerable time 
the main support of the North Carolina troops, and through them 
of the Confederacy. Goods were purchased by the State abroad on 
warrants that were backed by 11,000 bales of cotton and 100,000 
barrels of rosin. Among the imports intended for use of the army 
directly were 50,000 blankets; shoes and leather sufficient for 250,000 
pairs; gray woollen cloth for 250,000 uniforms; 12,000 overcoats 
ready made; 2,000 Enffeld rifles with 100 rounds of fixed ammu- 
nition; 100,000 pounds of bacon; 500 sacks of coffee for hospital 
use; $50,000 worth of medicines at gold prices; large quantities of 
lubricating oils and other minor supplies of various kinds for the 
charitable institutions of the State, besides many other necessities of 
life needed by the people for every day use. The supplies of shoes, 
blankets, and clothing were more than enough for the North Caro- 
lina troops, and large quantities were turned over to the Confederate 
Government for the troops of other States. In the winter of 1863-64 
Governor Vance supplied Longstreet's corps with 14,000 suits of 
clothing complete, and after the surrender of Joe Johnston, North 
Carolina had ready-made and in cloth 92,000 suits of uniform; there 
was also a great store of blankets, leather, &c. When Johnston's 
army surrendered it had five month's supplies for 60,000 men, and 
for many months Lee's army had drawn its supplies from North 
Carolina. It has been said that at the end of the war North Caro- 
lina had supplies sufficient for her to have still prolonged the strug- 
gle for two years. It was due to the executive ability of Governor 
Vance, a son of this University, that North Carolina found herself in 
this enviable position, and to this is due the fact that our people suf- 
fered less than other States, comparatively. 

Not only did Governor Vance provide thoroughly for the wants of 
the soldiers in the field, but he was careful also to see that the fami- 
lies of the men in the army were not allowed to suffer. Granaries 
were established at certain points in the State, and corn was distri- 
buted to the most needy districts; commissioners were appointed in 
each county to look after the needy, and in this way the State be- 
came, for the time, a great almoner. Commissioners were appointed, 
whose sole duty was to provide salt, and the chief of the bureau for 
making salt, saltpeter, copperas, sulphur, sulphuric acids, and medi- 
cal extracts, was Prof W. C. Kerr, class of 1850. As early as 1862 
he had been chemist and superintendent to the Mecklenburg Salt 
Company, whose works were located at Mt. Pleasant, near Charles- 
ton, S. C. He had made such improvements in the manufacture 



University of North Carolina in the Civil War. 37 

that the cost for wood was reduced one-half and other expenses less- 
ened. The University takes an honorable place also in the manu- 
facture of iron, for the second largest iron-mill in the Confederacy 
was owned and controlled by Robert R. and John L. Bridgers, both 
alumni, the former being also a member of the Confederate Congress. 
There was danger of an iron famine in the Confederacy, and at the 
request of the government the Messrs. Bridgers purchased the High 
Shoals iron property in Lincoln, Gaston, and Cleveland counties, N. 
C, and rebuilt the furnaces, forges, rolling-mills, nail factories, and 
foundaries. The States of North and South Carolina became, to a 
large extent, dependent on these mills, and they did also much 
government work. 

It was through such extraordinary measures as these that the 
necessities of life and the sinews of war were supplied to the people 
of North Carolina. This had a reflex action upon them, and kept up 
their interest and enthusiasm throughout the fearful struggle; their 
esprit de corps was little altered by the reverses of the battle-field. 
They had confidence in their government at home. The soldier 
in the field felt that his wife and children would not be allowed 
to suffer while his State was able to provide. This gave him re- 
newed strength for battle and caused him to show that magnificent 
heroism which has been for a generation the wonder and the admi- 
ration of the world. But this is at best but only a partial reason for 
the tremendous weight thrown by North Carolina into the scale in 
behalf of the Confederacy. No one man is, perhaps, so much res- 
ponsible for this period of the heroic as this son of our University, 
Zebulon Baird Vance. And never was there a greater Landstrian, a 
more universal leve en masse than was seen in this quiet, slow moving 
old State during those four tremendous years. The white popula- 
tion of North Carolina in i860 was 629,942; her military population 
was 115,369, being the third in rank in this respect. Her proper 
proportion of troops according to population was about one-tenth. 
She furnished in reality about one-fifth of the troops of the Confed- 
eracy. On a conservative estimate she sent to the Confederate armies 
125,000 men, or an average of about one soldier to each white family. 
She furnished 10,000 more troops than she had military population in 
i860. More than one-fourth of the Confederates killed in battle were 
North Carolinians; nearly one-fourth of those who died of wounds 
were North Carolinians; one-third of those who died of disease were 
North Carolinians; two-sevenths of the total losses of the Confed- 
eracy were North Carolinians. She lost 40,275 men, or about thirty- 



38 Southern Historical Society Papers. 

two per cent, of her total enrollment of 125,000. She lost more 
than twice as many troops as any other State, and yet surrendered 
twice as many troops as any other State at Appomattox. Prominent 
always among these troops of North Carolina were the alumni of this 
University. It was one of her alumni. General Bryan Grimes, class 
of 1848, who commanded the rear guard of Lee's army on its retreat 
from Petersburg, and it was the division under his command that, on 
the morning of April 9, 1865. made the last charge on the Federal 
lines that was ever made by the Army of Northern Virginia. 

XIII. Epilogue. 

Saving always the fact that North Carolinians did not, as a rule, 
develop the peculiar class of talent and character most highly es- 
teemed by the President of the Confederacy, it seems safe to say 
that no educational institution contributed more to the Confederacy 
in proportion to relative strength than did the University of North 
Carolina. Not that this institution was more disloyal to the Federal 
Government than others in the South; not that her alumni were 
more pre-eminently given over to the doctrine of secession than were 
the alumni of other institutions; but when North Carolina saw, in 
May, 1861, that she had the choice between two evils and that she. 
could not remain neutral in the pending struggle, she made the 
choice that was the most natural and reasonable. She chose the 
side of the State, or of local government, against the growing ten- 
dency toward centralization then given a new impetus by the Fede- 
ral authorities. The alumni of her University responded gladly to 
her call to duty. They were faithful to the earlier teachings of their 
Alma Mater. They risked name and fame, life and fortune, for their 
State. They laid down their lives at her command. 

The names of our Confederate dead are carved in marble on our 
memorial walls, but they have built themselves a monument more 
durable than marble. Their names are written in lines of living light 

"On Fame's Eternal camping-ground." 

The story of their heroism and their devotion to the call of duty wil 
be cherished by this University as the brightest jewel in her centen-- 
nial crown, and their names will be remembered in this institution as 
1 ong as patriotism is honored here, for 

" where great deeds were done, 
A power abides transfused from sire to son." 



MAR 23 mS 



